FIC - CHALLENGE 20
Title: Against His Wishes
Summary: Harry Potter is Sorted into Slytherin, which ends up being the worst thing that ever happened to him.
Characters/Pairings: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Blaise Zabini
Genre: gen, ANGST
Beta: none (though you could argue cassinea, cyn_ful, and autumn_mist kind of qualify)
Rating/Warnings: PG, starts out depressing and gets extremely dark
NOTE: This was inspired by July's Slytherin In-House Activity and is written in fulfilment of this week's fic challenge in the dungeons.
Medium: fic
Word Count: 1297
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: yes
The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.
"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my goodness, yes -- and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting.... So where shall I put you?"
Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.
"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that -- no?
"Please, please. Anything but Slytherin, anything but Slytherin," Harry insisted to the hat.
The Hat responded "Well, you may be sure, but you're no Gryffindor --- better be SLYTHERIN!"
Harry nervously staggered over to the Slytherin table, fearing the worst. His housemates were eyeing him suspiciously, but the Sorting was still going on. The next three people's Sortings went on uneventfully, with two Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw. But then things got interesting.
"Zabini, Blaise!"
The last boy, a tall, aristocratic dark-skinned boy with high cheekbones, strode confidently to the podium. He knew where he belonged, but was a bit worried by Harry's Sorting.
"Ahh," said the hat, "you are clearly ambitious, cunning, subtle, and would make a great fit for Slytherin."
Blaise smirked, expecting to go to the same house his family had always gone into.
"But, unfortunately," at this point Blaise tensed up a little
"there are no beds left in Slytherin. Harry Potter took the last one. The only bed left on campus is in GRYFFINDOR!"
Blaise was completely shocked and angry but still strode over to the Gryffindor table without showing any emotion. He was going to make that Potter PAY for taking his spot in the dungeons.
Dinner passed for Harry in relative silence; as delicious as the food was, Harry was unable to completely enjoy it because he was surrounded by an uneasy feeling that he simply did not belong where he was. Once the meal ended and Harry made it over to his new dorm in the dungeons, things got even worse.
Snakes look after their own, but there was no way that Draco or his two close lackeys Crabbe and Goyle would ever consider Harry one of their own after his allegiance had been so strongly set. Instead, they immediately started teasing and pranking him which they considered completely justified for the way Harry had treated them on the train. Theodore Nott, the sole remaining Slytherin dorm mate, might have been eventually able to warm up to Harry, but he had no incentive to be anything other than a passive observer that night. After all, despite having no particular allegiance to Draco Malfoy's little gang, Theodore was not the type of person to rush into a situation where he was outnumbered. He had decided that in a major intra-House dispute, he was going to remain on the outside. Although he intended to remain cordial to Harry instead of bullying a housemate, he had no special incentive to become close to him. Further, he suspected deep down that Harry would never be Slytherin enough to figure out how to provide such an incentive.
The next morning in the Great Hall, Harry went up to Ron Weasley to try and talk to him. After all, they were all set to be friends until that accident with the Sorting Hat. However, Ron Weasley refused to accept any of his overtures for friendship. No matter how Harry tried to explain that he would have preferred Gryffindor and really wanted to be friends, Ron simply yelled "GO AWAY, YOU SLIMY SNAKE!" over and over again. After five minutes, Blaise Zabini saw the argument, punched the Slytherin in the face, and said "Ron doesn't want to deal with you, Potter. Now get away from our table." With that gesture, Ron and Blaise instantly became close friends and allies... and Harry knew he would not be safe among either Gryffindors or Slytherins.
For the next few months, Harry was bullied by Gryffindors - especially Ron and Blaise - throughout the day. While Harry's housemates would never be so brazen as to pick on him in front of the other houses (Slytherins had to show a united front in public), they also never laid a finger to defend him. At night in his dorms, Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle would relentlessly tease, torment, and bully him nonstop and no one bothered to stop. Harry's Head of House was so mean and nasty to him that it was almost as if Harry had been Sorted into Gryffindor instead of his own house. If anything, Snape was even harder on Harry than on the actual Gryffindors - to the point that one time when he saw Harry, Ron, and Blaise fighting, he actually awarded the Gryffindors house points for skilful spellwork! Most likely, Harry would be bullied by Gryffindors in the common areas with Slytherins not defending him... and he would be bullied by Slytherins (Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle in particular) in his bedrooms with no one defending him.
By the middle of November, it had become crystal clear to Harry that life was just as depressing for him at Hogwarts as it had been with the Muggles. One depressing, misty, rainy Tuesday afternoon, as Harry was walking by the Great Lake, his accidental magic snapped from all the pressure, causing a tree branch to fall and land on Zacharias Smith. Once the first year Hufflepuff realized what had happened, he managed to get his house united in hating Harry as well. With a clear majority of the students strongly hating everything to do with Harry Potter, proceedings for Harry's expulsion from Hogwarts began. Naturally, Dumbledore tried to defend Harry, recognizing that the tree branch had fallen due to accidental magic. However, Harry had no desire to fight his own case because the magical world had proven just as rough for him as the Muggle version. Needless to say, proceedings ended with Harry's wand snapped in two (Pomona Sprout, who was Zacharias's head of house, was more than happy to be the one to grab and snap it) and he was placed in front of Hagrid, who was given orders to escort him back to the Dursleys. Harry returned to the Muggle world even more distraught than before.
Back in the Wizarding World, Lord Voldemort sensed that Harry was no longer going to be a threat so he decided to act quickly: performing the ritual needed to acquire a human body and rising to power in the Wizarding World within a month. As the "Boy Who Lived" was persona non grata as far as the Wizarding World was concerned, it was easy for the Dark Lord to amass support. However, Voldemort needed one more thing to happen in order for him to become completely sure of his power.
One day in January, Harry was crossing the street in front of his school, Stonewall Comprehensive - steeling himself for another long grind of a depressingly Muggle day. He had no idea that Voldemort himself was around, dressed as a Muggle. Completely undetected, Voldemort cast a wandless, silent, temporary Confundus Charm at a lorry driver in the road, which lasted just long enough for the lorry driver to swerve slightly off course and run into Harry, killing him instantly. The Muggles would view this death as nothing more than an ordinary lorry accident, but Voldemort knew that his status as Dark Lord was completely cemented.
William//Slytherin//1297 words --> 43 + 5 (challenge) = 48 points for Slytherin!
Summary: Harry Potter is Sorted into Slytherin, which ends up being the worst thing that ever happened to him.
Characters/Pairings: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Blaise Zabini
Genre: gen, ANGST
Beta: none (though you could argue cassinea, cyn_ful, and autumn_mist kind of qualify)
Rating/Warnings: PG, starts out depressing and gets extremely dark
NOTE: This was inspired by July's Slytherin In-House Activity and is written in fulfilment of this week's fic challenge in the dungeons.
Medium: fic
Word Count: 1297
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: yes
The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.
"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my goodness, yes -- and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting.... So where shall I put you?"
Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.
"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that -- no?
"Please, please. Anything but Slytherin, anything but Slytherin," Harry insisted to the hat.
The Hat responded "Well, you may be sure, but you're no Gryffindor --- better be SLYTHERIN!"
Harry nervously staggered over to the Slytherin table, fearing the worst. His housemates were eyeing him suspiciously, but the Sorting was still going on. The next three people's Sortings went on uneventfully, with two Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw. But then things got interesting.
"Zabini, Blaise!"
The last boy, a tall, aristocratic dark-skinned boy with high cheekbones, strode confidently to the podium. He knew where he belonged, but was a bit worried by Harry's Sorting.
"Ahh," said the hat, "you are clearly ambitious, cunning, subtle, and would make a great fit for Slytherin."
Blaise smirked, expecting to go to the same house his family had always gone into.
"But, unfortunately," at this point Blaise tensed up a little
"there are no beds left in Slytherin. Harry Potter took the last one. The only bed left on campus is in GRYFFINDOR!"
Blaise was completely shocked and angry but still strode over to the Gryffindor table without showing any emotion. He was going to make that Potter PAY for taking his spot in the dungeons.
Dinner passed for Harry in relative silence; as delicious as the food was, Harry was unable to completely enjoy it because he was surrounded by an uneasy feeling that he simply did not belong where he was. Once the meal ended and Harry made it over to his new dorm in the dungeons, things got even worse.
Snakes look after their own, but there was no way that Draco or his two close lackeys Crabbe and Goyle would ever consider Harry one of their own after his allegiance had been so strongly set. Instead, they immediately started teasing and pranking him which they considered completely justified for the way Harry had treated them on the train. Theodore Nott, the sole remaining Slytherin dorm mate, might have been eventually able to warm up to Harry, but he had no incentive to be anything other than a passive observer that night. After all, despite having no particular allegiance to Draco Malfoy's little gang, Theodore was not the type of person to rush into a situation where he was outnumbered. He had decided that in a major intra-House dispute, he was going to remain on the outside. Although he intended to remain cordial to Harry instead of bullying a housemate, he had no special incentive to become close to him. Further, he suspected deep down that Harry would never be Slytherin enough to figure out how to provide such an incentive.
The next morning in the Great Hall, Harry went up to Ron Weasley to try and talk to him. After all, they were all set to be friends until that accident with the Sorting Hat. However, Ron Weasley refused to accept any of his overtures for friendship. No matter how Harry tried to explain that he would have preferred Gryffindor and really wanted to be friends, Ron simply yelled "GO AWAY, YOU SLIMY SNAKE!" over and over again. After five minutes, Blaise Zabini saw the argument, punched the Slytherin in the face, and said "Ron doesn't want to deal with you, Potter. Now get away from our table." With that gesture, Ron and Blaise instantly became close friends and allies... and Harry knew he would not be safe among either Gryffindors or Slytherins.
For the next few months, Harry was bullied by Gryffindors - especially Ron and Blaise - throughout the day. While Harry's housemates would never be so brazen as to pick on him in front of the other houses (Slytherins had to show a united front in public), they also never laid a finger to defend him. At night in his dorms, Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle would relentlessly tease, torment, and bully him nonstop and no one bothered to stop. Harry's Head of House was so mean and nasty to him that it was almost as if Harry had been Sorted into Gryffindor instead of his own house. If anything, Snape was even harder on Harry than on the actual Gryffindors - to the point that one time when he saw Harry, Ron, and Blaise fighting, he actually awarded the Gryffindors house points for skilful spellwork! Most likely, Harry would be bullied by Gryffindors in the common areas with Slytherins not defending him... and he would be bullied by Slytherins (Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle in particular) in his bedrooms with no one defending him.
By the middle of November, it had become crystal clear to Harry that life was just as depressing for him at Hogwarts as it had been with the Muggles. One depressing, misty, rainy Tuesday afternoon, as Harry was walking by the Great Lake, his accidental magic snapped from all the pressure, causing a tree branch to fall and land on Zacharias Smith. Once the first year Hufflepuff realized what had happened, he managed to get his house united in hating Harry as well. With a clear majority of the students strongly hating everything to do with Harry Potter, proceedings for Harry's expulsion from Hogwarts began. Naturally, Dumbledore tried to defend Harry, recognizing that the tree branch had fallen due to accidental magic. However, Harry had no desire to fight his own case because the magical world had proven just as rough for him as the Muggle version. Needless to say, proceedings ended with Harry's wand snapped in two (Pomona Sprout, who was Zacharias's head of house, was more than happy to be the one to grab and snap it) and he was placed in front of Hagrid, who was given orders to escort him back to the Dursleys. Harry returned to the Muggle world even more distraught than before.
Back in the Wizarding World, Lord Voldemort sensed that Harry was no longer going to be a threat so he decided to act quickly: performing the ritual needed to acquire a human body and rising to power in the Wizarding World within a month. As the "Boy Who Lived" was persona non grata as far as the Wizarding World was concerned, it was easy for the Dark Lord to amass support. However, Voldemort needed one more thing to happen in order for him to become completely sure of his power.
One day in January, Harry was crossing the street in front of his school, Stonewall Comprehensive - steeling himself for another long grind of a depressingly Muggle day. He had no idea that Voldemort himself was around, dressed as a Muggle. Completely undetected, Voldemort cast a wandless, silent, temporary Confundus Charm at a lorry driver in the road, which lasted just long enough for the lorry driver to swerve slightly off course and run into Harry, killing him instantly. The Muggles would view this death as nothing more than an ordinary lorry accident, but Voldemort knew that his status as Dark Lord was completely cemented.
William//Slytherin//1297 words --> 43 + 5 (challenge) = 48 points for Slytherin!